Shadows of the Universe (Sci-fi Action RP)(Started)(Closed)

[InkBlot Royalist]

Jobe was rummageing through the stacks of weaponry when he froze. At the very back of the close-quarter section lay a thing of beauty. It was a chain-sword. The weapons had been banned on Earth after several incidents with militants getting their hands on them and preforming unwanted limb amputations on their prisoners, and the forces sent to retrieve the weapons. The handle was red leather and completely un-worn, and the blade was just over a meter long. Jobe picked it up and was suprised at how light it was. The teeth of the revolving section were still sharp. The sword was obviously brand new. Glancing at the handle he saw a dial on the hilt with three settings: 1-Stationary, 2- Rapid, 3- Blender. Jobe's smile was so wide a bannana could have fitted it. Striding to the armourer he quickly signed the weapon out, along with a few extra magazines for his Orphans; and headed back to his room. Dropping off his guns and ammo, along with his armour, Jobe took his knuckle dusters and new weapon to the gym, hoping to find a training area where he could get properly aquainted with his new toy.

 

[ThreeWords]

Things passed in a blur. Nothing seemed very relevant as people shouted, things rushed back and forth, and the pressure in her head kept rising. She even fired her weapon a few times, but didn't see if it did ant good. And now, things had gone quiet...

"Camilla!"

A voice, nearby. She focuses, and squints down at the other person; a young woman, strangely short. She looks worried, for some reason.

"Come on, what the hell's wrong with you? You've been out of your head since we landed down there!"

It all seems very relevant, and on some level is deeply worrying, but it doesn't really seem to matter right now. The pressure is getting stronger. Her vision blurs, and everything sways. Suddenly, the ground comes up to meet her...

Spoiler: OOC

I'm back, if you'll have me. I'm using a side effect of Camilla's mutation to explain why she's not one anything for a while, and if you want me gone I can cause it to kill her.

If I'm still welcome round here, I'll have her wake up in Damien's care, having been diagnosed with over-strong heart muscle causing near-fatal blood pressure in the brain. It seems that her body is still growing stronger, and it was only luck that caused her head to become strong enough to allow her recovery.

Sound good?

 

[staika]

Spoiler: OOC

Sure thing, I'd love to have you back. and that sounds like a very good explanation as to why your character was out of it. Now I may not have to recruit another person

 

[lacktheknack]

Rick felt as if he was on pins and needles. First Kell had a mountain dropped on him, and thankfully survived, bless his soul, and now Camilla had keeled over when no one was looking as they legged it back to the Pegasus. He didn't know who had dragged her back on, but if he found out, he was going to take them out for a drink.

He sat beside Camilla's bed, still unarmored. She looked very... something. As if she was awake, but not aware. He hoped that Damien would come by soon, maybe he could snap her back to her senses.

 

[ThreeWords]

On her own, the cabin felt empty, and Jinxie found that she would only start to fret. She probably wouldn't be any use, but she decided to go check, on her invalid mentor.

When she pushed the door open, she found the room empty, save for Rick, who was almost unrecognisable without his carapace of armour. Like the unconscious Camilla, he looked small and vulnerable.

She tried to smile, but it felt strange. Instead, she went to the bedside, and took one Camilla's hands in both of hers. For all their size, they seemed fragile, and the pulse was wild and savage.

 

[Grim327]

While Colon was busy dissecting the alien weapons, Chris took two intact rifles to the firing range to see what these weapons could do to their armor. After he went by the armory to grab a few sets of an assortment of armor and helmets, and with the help of a few soldiers that were nearby to pull the stuff on carts and dollies, Chris started setting up in the firing range. He first set up what seemed to be the enemies' small sized weapon, and made sure that he could pull the trigger from a safe distance with string. Down range was a set of WINGS standard armor. He yanked the the string, making the gun fire, and for a split second, he didn't see anything. After that one second, however, the standard armor was hit, and the armor started melting.
"Interesting," Chris said to himself, "the weapon's ammo has an acidic trait to it." Chris put his findings into a small datapad he brought with him for future reference. He continued to try this weapon on other pieces of armor from helmets to other armor. He would have to ask every member of the team for their armor to test it, especially Rick and Camilla for their heavy armor.
Chris continued to place his findings into his datapad and soon started using the enemies medium rifle, or what he thought was it. This time the rifle did not fire an invisible round, but instead a round you could see. Once this round hit the standard armor, the armor did not start melting, but instead, the round burnt through and kept going.
"So armor piercing, but no acidic trait. These guys are ready for anything." Chris kept putting his findings into his datapad, and like the previous weapon, Chris started testing out other pieces of armor. Once Chris was finished testing for now, he called for some more soldiers to help with lugging the armor back to the armory for repairs. Chris, then headed back to his room to analyze the data he found.

 

[InkBlot Royalist]

After a few minutes of wandering aimlessly around the corridors Jobe managed to corner a ship worker and ask the way to the gym. The man had nearly fainted! Probably the chain-sword Jobe was holding at his side as he strolled down the mettalic alleys.
Reaching the gym, he was pleasantly suprised by the bounty of apparatus set out. Oddly, it was virtually deserted, a few stocky men in the corner were pumping heavy weights, probably as part of training for a gunnery crew or something. Going into a locker room, Jobe stripped down to some tracksuit trousers and a white military vest. Chainsword and knuckle-dusters in hand, he prowled into the gym.
By means of a warm up he stretched did a few dozen push-ups. He began to feel his heart beating faster. Adrenalin would probably begin soon. Time to start.
Jobe grabbed the chainsword and moved into an empty space in the middle of the gymnasium, an area probably used for sparring or wrestling. Jobe put his new weapon through a few practice spins, getting a feel for its weight and momentum.
"Lets go..." he chuckled, and thumbed the switch to "Rapid" The chain-sword lept to life, its bladed teeth screaming into a shockingly loud grate of metal and motor. Jobe spun the blade, hacking at invisible opponetnts all around him. He cut, sliced and stabbed, never parrying, only dodgeing. His bare feet danced around the floor, and his grunts and snarls of exertion were drowned out by the weapon's own voice.
Jobe's heart beat faster and faster, and the thick syrup of his adrenalin oozed into his blood. Jobe's movements quickened, his blows were faster, stronger, the weapon becoming a metalic swirl aroun his form. He felt it as his senses heightened, he became aware of everything in the room, the breathing patterns of the men behind him, the faint throb of the ship's engines coming through the floor, the beautiful blur of his blade...
Jobe caught himself, and slowed, no sense in getting carried away. Not yet at least.
thumbing the switch, the sword juddered to a stop in his hand with a wail of tortured disappointment. It shared Jobe's sentiments exactly.
Jobe pressed his thumb against one of the teeth. Red liquid bubbled from his finger against the hot steel
"Drink my friend," he purred "There WILL be more."

 

[lacktheknack]

Camilla's apprentice had come in... "Jinxie", was it? She had looked at Rick with a blank expression and had grimaced a bit, but now was beside the bed, holding her hand.

Rick leaned over and brushed a bit of hair out of Camilla's face. Her forehead where his hand had brushed pulsed momentarily. Weird. Rick paused, then grabbed her other hand, feeling for a pulse. As he pressed his finger into her wrist, it suddenly jumped to engulf his finger. Rick pulled his hand back, alarmed. Addressing Jinxie, "Hey, go grab a nurse, will you? I don't think I'm supposed to feel her bloodflow through her skin."

 

[Xero Scythe]

Damien looked at Kell one more time, checking out the extent of his damage. "All in all, it could have been quite a bit worse." Damien muttered. He had just finished hooking up some minor anasthesia to help with the pain when Jinxie burst into the room and targeted Damien like a heat seeking missile. "Damien! Damien! Follow me! Camilla's in trouble!" Damien cursed. The sheer fact that Jinxie was willing to use his first name rather than his rank was alarming enough; the fact that she went straight for Damien instead of some random nurse was even worse. "I'm going. Catch up later!" Damien called out. He commanded fast twitch fibers to grow in his legs and shot adrenaline through his system. When Damien started sprinting, there was simply no way to keep up with him. He easily outstripped Jinxie and ran down the halls for the room Camilla would be kept.

"Damn the special WINGS hospital rooms! It makes it too damn hard to reach one in an emergency!" Damien skidded into the room, and saw what a sorry state Camilla was truly in. He cursed loudly as he noticed the engorged veins, the profuse sweating, and the lobster-red skin. "Her blood pressure is skyrocketing!" Damien reached for her hand just to feel how bad it was and gasped as he tried to press down on the rock hard veins. Rick looked at Damien as if to ask if he could do anything. Damien shook his head as he looked at Camilla one more time, this time with the MRI feature on his contacts. "Her blood pressure has shot through the roof. I can't strike the carotid artery to artificially lower her blood pressure, or I'll pop her head like a zit. And the pressure is way too high for a blood transfusion. Her heart has... gotten....too strong... Jinxie! Go turn on that AC to max!" An idea occured to Damien. "Rick! Go get me a pitcher of water. I need to keep her blood diluted."

Damien's hand brushed past Camilla's bicep, further increasing his hopes. She hadn't worked out enough since they arrived on the ship to put on that much muscle; her mutation must have been... well, mutating. Damien grinned as he felt and examined her head. There was a strange tissue separating the brain matter from the skull itself. Damien wouldn't mind doing a biopsy on the alien tissue later on, but for now it would have to wait. Damien would simply have to hope that the tissue was enough to protect Camilla. He hooked up a bag of beta blockers to her IV drip and slowly began to press down on the carotid artery. It artificially increased the blood pressure in the brain, which in turn sent the command to the heart to lower blood pressure. Damien sighed as he released his hold on the carotid artery. It worked! The brain was already sending the command to slow the heart down. Damien repeated this process a few times before standing back and looking at the monitors. Damien breathed a sigh of relief as Camilla's readings returned to normal. "She's gonna be okay." Damien nodded with relief.

 

[ThreeWords]

The floor never hit her. She didn't know where it went, but little did she care; things were getting a little crazy, and a disappearing floor was the least of her worries.

Lights danced, and shapes convulsed in a terrible, insistent rhythm. There were no walls around her but she felt crushed, the pressure from the very air around her punching in, forcing her down, trying to overwhelm all she was. Everything seemed to dim, flattened by the incessant beat.

Suddenly, a wave of clearness, liberation. The march hadn't stopped, but it was held off, keeping at a distance. There was a barrier around her now, protecting her. Light returned, and things took shape, focus, clarity. She felt like she was rushing upwards, out of ocean depths, and damn did her head hurt. She blinked, groaned, and looked around groggily. She was lying in bed with a crowd around her, staring crazily. Jinxie was crushing one hand in a vice-like grip, while on her other side was Rick, curiously un-bulky without his shell. Above, Damien managed to look both concerned and pleased with himself.

She smiled, woozily. "What happened?" she managed to murmur, each word an echo inside her skull

 

[Grim327]

Chris finally made it back to his room. When he opened the door, Colon was sitting at a table looking at the innards of the enemies' "invisa-blob" gun, or so he coined the name for now.

"So, what have you found?" Chris asked Colon.

Colon looked up from the guts of the weapon and replied, "Their weapons' insides are nothing like ours. They seem more organic, or fluid than our steel and plastic."

Chris took a look for himself and saw that the insides were a mixed colors of green, light-blue, and maroon. Lights were pulsing near the barrel, and there didn't seem to be any sign of a magazine, or anything similar. When Chris placed his finger against the trigger, the innards started brightening up like it was energized.

"Interesting. . . Colon take this weapon down to the firing range and shoot it without the cover. I want radioactive, thermal, electronic readings, the works. Once your done, take it down to the engineers and have them continue the disassembly, then do the same with the others."

"I'm on it." Colon replied and headed off.

Chris started thinking about his teammates and realized that he hadn't spoke to any of them since they returned. He decided to try and find them since he had a little time to himself. He started looking up and down halls and couldn't seem to find any of them.

 

[lacktheknack]

"All your blood vessels nearly exploded. Except Damien gave you a signature miracle."

Camilla looked at Rick blearily as if he had just grown breasts. Rick was never one for mincing words when the danger was over.

 

[Xero Scythe]

Damien's legs began to twitch violently as he lost control over them. The flesh literally began to crawl as the muscle underneath returned to the standard dictated by Damien's Little Brother. His knees buckled and gave way, causing him to crash to the floor. Damien realized that he hadn't slept ever since he had arrived on the ship. He struggled to push himself up. "Rick, would you mind helping me into that wheelchair over there? Thank you." Damien said as the heavy-duty soldier lifted Damien like a feather and gently deposited the doctor in the indicated wheelchair. Damien rolled over to where he had flung his bag and quickly consumed a cube to make up for the energy he had burned through. Unfortunately, his body knew that it was being tricked now, and Damien would soon have to sleep if he wanted to be at max capacity.

Damien shook his head wearily and sighed. This was not the best time for his bedside manner, so he decided to give it as straight as possible. "You fainted due to an abnormally high blood pressure caused by an overstrong heart. Your BP was too high for a blood transfusion, and I couldn't touch you for fear causing massive hemorrhaging." Damien shook his head, unable to believe the events that had taken place. "You've developed a special tissue within your skull that seems to shield it from shock and lessen damage done to it. Rick could theoretically hit you right now, and it would do little to no special damage." Damien sighed, unable to completely understand it himself. "I prayed that it would save you, then hooked you up to beta blockers and applied pressure to the baroreceptors in your Carotid artery. Together, they managed to bring your BP down to normal."

Damien shook his head once more in disbelief of what he just witnessed. "To make a long story short, you're mutating. Your WINGS mutation is constantly evolving. I'll try and keep the data from Thompson, but I'll need the data on you to see if this was planned or accidental. Either way, I may have to subject all WINGS to a battery of tests to find out what the hell is going on." Damien looked at Jinxie. "And you will keep your mouth shut about everything I just said if you don't want your mentor to become a lab rat. Got it?" Damien asked. Sighing, Damien turned back to Camilla. "I'm going to keep you on beta blockers until the rest of your body catches up with your heart. Until then, drink plenty of water to try and dilute your blood a bit, alright?"

 

[ThreeWords]

Jinxie nodded, mute. Her hands never left Camilla's. The invalid, however, was having none of it.

"I reckon I can manage, actually." she said, a little forcefully. "Blame the changing mutation, but I'm restless already. Let me up and do something!" seeing Damien's face, "I'll be careful, honest"

Jinxie darted away, returned with a glass of water. Camilla took it and drank greedily. There was a little crunching noise, and she winced. Setting down the glass, there were cracks where she had been holding the glass.

 

[lacktheknack]

Rick carefully grabbed the glass and looked at it. A half-dozen spiderweb cracks covered the surface where Camilla had held it. The glass fell in on itself as he looked at it. Broken glass scratched viciously at his hand, but didn't break the skin.

He grimaced and reached over to a waste receptacle, dropping the shattered glass in. "Remind me to wait a couple days before shaking your hand, OK, Camilla? It's great to see you conscious again. I'll go spread the news."

Rick legged it back to the main WINGS quarters, finding Chris standing outside of them, looking puzzled. "Hey, Chris! Camilla's back on her feet! Damien did something-or-other to her neck and she woke up!"

 

[Grim327]

Chris saw Rick down the hall and heard the good news, "That's great! Hey, do you have any idea where everyone is? I checked all over and can't find them. Also, I have been doing some work on those alien weapons we recovered, and I have been meaning to ask you and Camilla if I can run some tests on your armor with the weapons."

 

[lacktheknack]

"Well, Kell's flat on his back, Camilla's getting off hers, Damien is on medical duty, James could be anywhere, I haven't seen Jobe in a bit and Saryll's up and vanished. I'm willing to put my stuff to the test, so long as you don't completely melt it..."

 

[Grim327]

"Hmm, everyone seems to be busy. Oh, well. Oh, and thanks for letting test your armor. Who knows, maybe we can find a way for it to melt less or not at all."

 

[InkBlot Royalist]

After showering and putting his uniform back on, Jobe made his way back to his cabin. He wasn't sure if he was allowed to take weaponry out of the armory, but he doubted anyone would care. Or bring it up. Jobe was still buzzing from his brief training session, he was simply living for the sudden rushes of power and speed his adrenaline gave him. Oddly enough, he'd never been an adrenalin junky before the enhancement, but now...
Passing by the med-bay, Jobe noticed that Camilla seemed to be awake at last. He'd been concerned when she'd collapsed earlier, but she seemed tough enough to handle anything. Jobe poked his head through the door
"Good to see you're still with us! What happened back there? Headrush or something?"

 

[ThreeWords]

"Apparently so," she smiled back, "Apparently my heart muscles got too strong and nearly burst my brain, and it's taken a bit for the rest of em to catch up. I'm starting to get a little restless though; time to get up, I think."

Before anyone could protest, Camilla swung herself upright and off the bed. Wearing some kind of medical clothing, she gently but forcefully propelled the others out,

"I'm gonna get changed", she said, "then see how recovered i really am..."